Manufacturing

The severe shortage of manufacturing skills in the United States has the potential to impede the trend of steady growth in US manufacturing. Research confirms that manufacturers are having difficulty filling skilled and highly skilled manufacturing roles.

So how will 3D Printing impact the supply chain and logistics? It will accelerate a shift from “push supply chains” to “pull supply chains.” Some recent findings indicate that nearly 20% of those transport, logistics and supply chain executives surveyed were currently using 3D printing to some degree. Just under 40% believed 3D printing would have the most impact on increased customization.

Globalization has been a major industrial trend in which low labour costs have driven companies to set up their production sites in low cost countries, thus creating growth of cargo shipping between continents. The balance between transportation and labour cost may change. A new trend in the future may be globalization, where the global business is supported by local 3D production that optimizes the business through speed, quality or personalization.

I’ve thought long and hard about what to say this year because of all the media buzz around shale oil and natural gas fracking as energy saviors, maybe bringing back cheap energy and rendering the big user oil countries less dependent on oil, and less dependent on OPEC and other oil producing countries. My view has not been altered by the recent news around fracking.

The ISM Manufacturing survey for December 2013 showed the expansion was marginally weaker. The New Orders sub-index which historically correlates to the economy improved. The ISM Manufacturing survey index (PMI) declined marginally from 57.3 to 57.0 (50 separates manufacturing contraction and expansion). This was above expectations which were 56.7 to 56.9.

Grant Thornton survey finds U.S. companies will bring production, customer service and IT infrastructure back to the United States.

My predictions may be right, or they may be wrong, but one thing I think all will agree on is that 3D printing will make the supply chain more complex and more difficult to manage. The companies that succeed through this transition will be the ones that adapt early and leverage the tools they need in order to manage this more complex supply chain.

It’s not often that supply chain issues capture the wider public’s imagination. However, there is one innovation in recent years, 3D printing, which appears to make Star Trek science a stunning reality and for this reason has broken into the public’s consciousness.